Within the field of magnetic recording today, the most prevalent primary data storage systems utilize rigid disk drives. In the rigid disk drive, a stack of disks is mounted on a spindle and rotated inside an enclosure which has a controlled air supply to minimize internal contamination. Reading and writing of binary digital information is achieved with an array of heads, each provided with a spring suspension attached to an arm-assembly. The transducers, or heads, are individually mounted on sliders which are then loaded against the surface of a rotating disk. The arm-assemblies are connected to a common spindle which is positioned by an electro-magnetic actuator to provide selective access of the heads to any desired track on the disk. Movement of the electro-magnetic actuator is controlled by a signal from a control track on the disk medium. Usually, one head near the center of the head stack is reserved for reading the control signal. The actuator itself is only one part of the serial control system which is used to control the movement of multiple head-arm assemblies across the disk surface and to maintain the heads on-track to minimize track misregistration during reading/writing of information.
Most often, the read/write electronics are coupled to the actuator using a flexible connective cable. Individual connection to each of the transducers is made through a plurality of wires which run along the actuator arm-assembly from the transducer to the terminals located on the flexible connective cable. During the manufacturing process these head wires are cut to length, tinned, glued or taped in place along the arm-assembly and then individually hand soldered to the read/write flex circuit or connective flex cable. Because of the very small dimensions of the heads and the head wires, this procedure consumes an enormous amount of time and man power. Moreover, solder connections and damage problems due to operator handling result in a relatively large yield loss by using the hand solder manufacturing method. Typically it is not uncommon to expect a fall out of 7% due to these problems.
Hence, there is a need in the field for a method or apparatus for electrically connecting the transducer to the read/write electronics of the magnetic recording system. As will be seen, the present invention provides a connector apparatus which enables the transducer to be electrically coupled to the read/write flex circuit in a minimal amount of time. Utilizing a bar soldering technology, the invention obviates hand solder operations while increasing the manufacturing yield to nearly 100%.